Blenders, smoothie makers and beverage mixers have become increasingly popular for making frosty drinks, such as milkshakes or smoothies. Milkshakes are typically made of ice cream and/or milk, and flavored as desired, with or without additives, such as candies, chocolates, peanut butter, flavored syrups, etc. Smoothies are typically healthier than milkshakes and are made with ice, frozen yogurt or sorbet, and fruit juice, and can include additives such as fruit, vitamins or supplements. Milkshakes, smoothies and other frosty drinks are hereinafter collectively referred to as “frozen beverages.”
Restaurants and specialty food stores prepare frozen beverages using commercial quality blenders. When consumers attempt to replicate the frozen beverage recipes at home, they typically find their standard kitchen blender to be inadequate for the task. A disadvantage of the known kitchen blenders is that the blender gets clogged or otherwise stalled by the drink ingredients. Another disadvantage is that the ingredients are not sufficiently circulated through the blades so that large pieces of ice, fruit or other ingredients remain even after the beverage is fully mixed.
To ensure proper chopping and mixing of the ingredients, it is often necessary to supplement the blending by stirring the ingredients with a spoon or spatula. If the-blender is in operation when stirring the ingredients with a spoon or spatula, there is a danger of hitting the mixing blades with the spoon or spatula and this could result in contamination of the food, damage to the blender or injury to the person holding the spoon or spatula. Also, material pushed into the blades when the lid is not on the blender container is likely to be thrown upward out of the container by the rapidly rotating blades which will make a mess of walls, cabinets or counter space in the vicinity of the blender.
To avoid the danger and mess created by stirring the ingredient while the blender is in operation, the user must interrupt the blending process by turning the blender off, removing the lid and then stirring the ingredients. The disadvantage of this process is that it inconveniently lengthens the preparation time and adds numerous additional steps to the preparation process.
Thus, it is desirous to provide a stir stick for a blender apparatus that enables the user to stir the ingredients without presenting a danger to the user or creating a mess.